TITLE:
A Preliminary Vegetation-Ecological Study of Davidia involucrata Forest
AUTHORS:
Haimei You, Kazue Fujiwara, Yanhong Liu
KEYWORDS:
China, Community, Classification, Phytogeographical Areal Type, Davidia involucrata
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.6 No.12,
August
20,
2014
ABSTRACT: Davidia involucrata is a rare endangered species belonging to the paleo-tropical flora of the Tertiary
period, endemic to China, and has an important protection and ornamental value.
However, the natural populations and distribution areas of this ancient plant
have been decreased sharply, because it suffers much disturbance from human
activity in many regions. In this paper, data on Davidia involucrata forest in its most natural distribution areas
were collected; the percentages of geographical areal types of seed-plant genera
(Sensu Wu 1991) were summed; the community types were summarized using
Braun-Blanquet methodology; and the geographical differentiation among
communities was analyzed by detrended canonical correspondence analysis. The
analysis of geographical types shows that temperate species are dominant and
that tropical species also make up a high percentage. This indicates that Davidia involucrata forest is mainly
temperate vegetation. In total, 16 communities were recognized by
classification, and these communities were usually dominated by deciduous
broad-leaved species, sometimes mixed with some evergreen species. The shrub
layer of Davidia involucrata forest
is generally occupied by bamboos. The geographical patterns among the
communities are influenced mainly by temperature and moisture availability, and
the forest is most likely to grow in warm, humid habitats.